


ghost limbs

by dorcas_gustine



Category: Firefly, Serenity (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-10-27
Updated: 2009-10-27
Packaged: 2017-10-02 13:17:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dorcas_gustine/pseuds/dorcas_gustine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three scenes to and from a rescue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ghost limbs

**Author's Note:**

> Set post-Series and post-Movie. Beta'ed by **spatialrift47** and **roachpatrol** on lj. Thanks guys!
> 
> I don't know any Chinese, except for _xie-xie_, so apologies.

Mal signaled to Zoë that he was almost out of ammo. He pulled back his hand just in time, though, as a bullet whizzed by a moment later, managing to take out just a chunk of rock instead of his fingers.

"Gorr-" he grunted, slamming himself back against the rock he was taking cover behind. "_Jayne_!" he shouted. "You gorram _sha gua_! Jayne!"

To his right Jayne stopped shooting and turned to look at him. He was frowning, confused. "What?"

"This is all your fault!" Mal shouted back. "Just sayin', you know, for the record."

"Aww, c'mon Mal!" Jayne pouted in a rather childish way for their current situation. Six against three, that is, with double fire-power and double amount of ammo, and double everything, really. "That ain't fair!"

Oh, sure, they were three cartridges and five minutes away from dying a horrible, bleeding death, and Jayne pouted because it wasn't fair.

A shot went by his head, skimming over the rock and spraying Mal's hair and face with dirt and small chips of stone. And now he was half-blind. _Shiny_.

There was a short pause in the shooting and he took the opportunity to reply with some of his own.

He wasted three precious bullets, but a sharp cry awarded his effort. Five to three now, slightly less likely to end with them dead.

Jayne apparently took his example and emptied his gun - was it Glenda? Or Rachel, maybe, he always got those two confused - and tossed it away with a grimace when it clicked. "Got one!" he shouted over to Mal, as he took another gun from behind his back.

He really had no clue how many more his merc had on himself, but sometimes Mal was really glad that Jayne was almost as paranoid as himself, but with more weapons.

Four to three.

"Maybe we could get out of this with just a few missing limbs," Mal shouted to Zoë. "Hopefully, Jayne's."

"Hey!" Jayne cried.

"Glad to hear that, sir," Zoë replied, her face tight with concentration.

"Hey!" Jayne repeated, then his eyes widened and he threw himself to the ground, covering his head with his arms.

Now, that surely wasn't a good sign. "Zoë, down!" he shouted, and ducked.

A moment later, as the rocks behind them were almost reduced to fine sand, he understood why. Those _hwun dan_\- They had a rutting _Gatling gun_!

Mal coughed as he was showered in dust and small rocks, his hands covering his head for protection, his face smashed against the ground, his mouth tasting the dirt and his ears ringing from the infernal noise.

And suddenly it was over. Blessed silence and nobody moved. It lasted several moments, and Mal lifted his arms from his head. He glanced at Zoë and at Jayne, but both of them had identical expressions of confusion.

"Propose you a deal!" a shout came. It was Gerrick, the _hun dan_.

Well, now, that was unexpected.

"_Tee wuh duh pee-goo_," he muttered, sitting up again and swiping some of the grime from his face. He frowned, wholly unconvinced, but they were outnumbered and the others had a rutting Gatling gun. "What?" he called out.

"Give us Cobb and we'll let you go!" Gerrick shouted. "You can even have the coin!"

Mal blinked. He had gathered that Gerrick had some kind of unfinished business with Jayne, he had gathered it right the moment when the two of them had seen each other and bullets and insults had started to fly. But if he was willing to let them go _and_ pay for the goods in exchange for Jayne, that was one hell of a grudge there.

"Sir…" Zoë started.

"Cap'n!" Jayne exclaimed, suddenly, and when Mal turned to look at him, his eyes were widened, afraid. "You're not thinkin'- You can't leave me here!"

He turned to Zoë. "Any suggestions?"

"Apart from leaving him here?" she asked.

"No!" Jayne exclaimed from right, and almost got his head blown off when he bolted upright.

"No, sir." Zoë shook his head. "But I got seven bullets left."

"What did you do to the guy, anyway?" he asked Jayne.

"Killed his _hun dan_ brother."

"Anyone ever told you you're gonna go far with your amazing social skills?" Mal snorted.

Gerrick got restless and another volley of bullets almost pulverized his rock. Shiny. He really hated tight spots.

"All right!" he shouted. "You get him, we get the money!"

"What!" Jayne exclaimed. "Mal! No, Mal! You can't!"

But Mal wasn't listening to him, he stood up slowly, his hands raised above his head, his fingers spread to show no threat. After a moment Zoë followed his lead.

Gerrick smirked at him and lowered his gun. "Knew you'd come around."

"I'm nothing if not reasonable," he shrugged.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Jayne was still crouching behind his rock, probably still wearing his wide-eyed disbelieving expression.

"Gorram it!" he swore, reloading his gun with a swift move and visibly bracing himself for a last stand.

"Jayne!" Mal exclaimed, warningly. "Drop your weapon."

"Like hell!" Jayne spat. "You're leavin' me here, I ain't goin' with no fight!"

"Drop your weapon, Jayne," Mal repeated. "It's an order."

"I ain't takin' orders from you, Mal," Jayne grunted. "You leave me here, ain't your merc no more."

"I'm your captain," Mal repeated, his voice becoming harder with every word. "And you're still my merc, until I say so. You'll take my orders."

Jayne frowned, and seemed about to reply, but Zoë cut in with a 'now, Jayne' and suddenly all fight seemed to leave him. He dropped his weapon and stood up, silent, and once again Mal was stunned at the hold he seemed to have on the merc.

"Take him," Gerrick said, and his smirk widened.

The man that stepped forward was as big as Jayne, and when he grabbed his arm and started leading him away, Jayne went without a fight. His only act of defiance was in the look he shot at Mal, his eyes were hard and accusing, as if he had just betrayed whatever trust Jayne had in him.

And he probably had, actually, but he wondered how worthy was it, anyway, the trust of an untrustworthy man.

Gerrick tossed a small bag in Mal's vague direction. It clinked when it landed. "Nice doin' business with you," he said.

"Can't say the same," Mal replied, shaking the dust away from his hair and his coat.

"Take the money and leave," Gerrick continued, and from the gun pointing at his head it wasn't a friendly suggestion.

Mal took the steps that separated him from the bag and bent down. He saw Jayne's discarded gun and picked it up, as well. He'd seen right, earlier. It was Glenda.

"Now leave," Gerrick repeated.

"With that attitude, one might feel unwelcomed," Mal replied, but he backed away slowly, until he reached Zoë's side.

Together, they walked back to the mule, keeping their eyes on Gerrick and his men all the time.

Gerrick said something to Jayne and his men laughed, then he raised his gun and hit Jayne on the back of his head. The big merc crumpled to the ground soundlessly.

Mal's hands itched.

Zoë got on the mule first, on the driver seat.

"I had to leave him," he said, when they were far enough and couldn't see them anymore. "They were gonna kill us, otherwise."

"Yes, sir," Zoë's voice was toneless.

Neither of them spoke then, the wind blowing away the dirt from their clothes and their hair, roaring in their ears.

It took them thirty minutes to drive back to _Serenity_. Glenda was heavy where it was tucked in his belt.

 

 

*  
*  
*  
*

 

 

When they reached _Serenity_ Zoë drove straight into the cargo bay, and Mal jumped down before she'd even stopped.

"Close the hatch doors," he ordered Kaylee who as waiting by the command console looking out at the wasteland, straining her neck as if she could have caught a glimpse of someone- _the_ one who was missing.

"But, Captain…" she started.

"Close the gorram hatch, Kaylee," he repeated. "Ain't nobody coming."

"Jayne?" she asked, but he ignored her, taking the stairs two steps at a time.

She didn't give up, though, and followed him after a few moments.

"Zoë told me what happened," she started talking when he still couldn't see her, her voice a metallic echo traveling through _Serenity_'s corridors. "We can't leave Jayne!"

"What happened?" Simon asked, poking his head out from the cockpit.

The Doc had always seemed to stick to the Infirmary, his bunk or the common areas, but now that his sister had taken to flying _Serenity_, he was either in the cockpit with her, or rutting somewhere with Kaylee. Somewhere preferably very far, Mal thought, from the engine of his boat, but he might have been a little delusional on that front.

River was at her brother's side in a moment, her sharp eyes studying Mal, making him as uncomfortable as always. "They've left a piece behind," she said. "Like an amputation, it bleeds and it hurts. A ghost limb."

"Captain!" Kaylee exclaimed once again. "We have to go back!"

"What happened?" Inara finally joined the party. She took in their haggard, but otherwise unhurt appearance. "I thought you said it was a safe deal."

"It was," Mal replied, showing them the bag with their coin.

"Then what-"

"The guy had an old score to settle."

"With Jayne," Zoë clarified.

Mal said nothing else after that, all the eyes fixed on him, waiting for something else he couldn't give.

"What?" he said, after a moment.

Everybody lowered their eyes. Except Kaylee.

She sprang forward and grabbed his arm. "Yes, but now we'll go and get him, right?"

"_Bizui_!" he growled, freeing his arm from her grip with a shrug.

She gave a small yelp and quickly backed away from him. He pushed past her into the cockpit.

"We don't know where they are. We killed two, but we don't know how many more of them are there, how well armed," he turned to look at them. "They had a gorram Gatling. And what do I got? Two people that can shoot, a doctor, a mechanic, a Companion and a girl."

And while said girl was literally a living and breathing weapon, she was too wild a card to be counted upon. What he needed right now was his merc, Vera and some of those grenades. Too bad he needed Jayne in order to save Jayne. "I won't risk my crew to go and get one man who might not even be alive anyhow," he said, his voice low and quiet but perfectly audible in the absolute silence. He turned around. "We ain't going."

"Captain!" Kaylee exclaimed, and she was crying or about to, judging from her voice.

Soft steps approached him. It was River, peering sideways at him from the curtain of her hair. "He's not gone," she said. "I could help you."

Right, that was what Mal needed, encouragement to go on a crazy mission to save his _hun dan_ of a merc who probably didn't even deserve saving, seeing as he'd killed the guy's brother. A suicide mission for a lost cause.

The last one had cost him so much. Too much.

"Sir?" Zoë asked, no inflection in her voice, just asking for a course of action, and he was gonna stand his ground. He was gonna say, 'No, we won't go, we _can't_ go', but he made the mistake of turning around.

God, there were so _few_ left of them.

He still wanted to say no, he had to say no, because if they couldn't afford another loss, they surely couldn't afford _multiple_, and that was right where this _feng le_ idea was gonna lead. He wanted to, but he _couldn't_.

And Jayne was a merc, but he was crew, he was _his_ merc. He'd lowered his gun when he'd told him to, he trusted him, he obeyed him, maybe not every time he should have, but always when he didn't have to.

And River was coming along for the ride.

He looked at her. "A ghost limb?" he said.

She nodded. "But sometimes, if the action is swift, and the doctor knows what to do, a limb can be reattached," she said.

"We need a good plan," Mal replied, but his mind was already made up. "We need time."

River rolled her eyes. "When are your plans good?"

Mal sputtered at that, and Inara snorted rather inelegantly.

"And we've got time," River concluded.

 

 

*  
*  
*  
*

 

 

"Didn't think you'd come for me," was the first thing Jayne said, when he saw Mal's head poke in from the doorway, and from his bewildered expression he was telling the truth.

He was sitting in the corner of what looked like a small cell - and why a gang of bandits would need a cell Mal couldn't figure - his right arm cradled protectively against his chest.

And Mal was a bastard, meeting his eyes and lying right into his face. "Now, couldn't leave Vera without a daddy, could I?" he said, advancing towards the cell to free him.

Jayne got up with a grimace, and while he looked a little worse for the wear, nothing major seemed to be damaged, or missing. Mal shot the lock, and he was about to open the door, when Jayne's good hand shot through the bars and closed around his wrist, giving him pause. Mal looked up at him, frowning.

"Thanks, Cap'n," Jayne said, with a small smile, and there was something in his eyes that made Mal slightly uncomfortable, something like gratitude, but that was to be expected. It was more than that, and it didn't sit right with him, when just a few hours earlier Mal had been ready to leave him here, when in his mind Jayne was still suspended between crew and employee, between necessary and expendable.

"You have to thank the others, then," he said, and it came out much harder than he'd meant to. "Because if it was for me, we wouldn't have come back."

Jayne's smile fell off, predictably, and his eyes shuttered. His hand left Mal's wrist, allowing him to finally open the door. Mal handed him a gun and left the room without turning to check if he was being followed, he knew he would.

The warmth Jayne's fingers had left behind faded just a few seconds later.

When he reached Zoë, she acknowledged him with a slight nod and let her eyes travel beyond his shoulder, presumably checking over Jayne's appearance.

"I was lucky," Mal said, attracting the attention back to himself. "First room I looked into, he was there."

River gave him a look from where she was crouched near to the control panel of the door.

"All right, first room _you told me to look into_," he amended, rolling his eyes. "Now, what do you say we run like hell?"

"Sounds like a plan, Sir," Zoë said, but Mal knew her well, and her tone was dripping with sarcasm. And there was also the fact the no one was moving.

"No, don't tell me," he said, raising his hands. "The door River's rigged closed, the door behind which a dozen or so very angry, and very armed men are, _that_ is the only exit." River held his gaze, but Zoë lowered her eyes. "You told me it was gonna be easy," he growled. "You told me, you were gonna rig the door so no one was gonna come through. Then tell me now, how the hell do we _get out_!"

"You was right, you shouldn't have co-"

"_Bizui_, Jayne," he hissed, his eyes still fixed on River. "You conned me. You conned me into coming here, with all your bullshit talk, and your 'I'll come too'. Answer this, what use is reattaching a limb if you die two minutes later?"

"You die whole," she answered.

"But see, you _still die_."

There was a brief moment of silence, broken only by Jayne's hopeful question. "You brought grenades?"

Mal gave him a look. "We did," he said, because he'd learnt his lesson. "But I don't know if it's escaped your notice, Jayne, we're in a _cave_. Underground. Something explodes down here, the roof falls on our heads."

Zoë was about to say something, when an ear-splitting noise drowned her voice. It was coming from the loudspeakers that were scattered along the walls. And since it was very likely an alarm, it meant the bodies they'd hidden coming here had been found. Still, he couldn't get over the fact that a rickety den of criminals was equipped with cells and alarms and who knows what else.

_Serenity_ didn't even have a brig.

"Shiny," Mal muttered under his breath. "Now they know we're here."

"What?" Jayne yelled at him over the noise. "Mal-"

As if on cue, gunfire suddenly could be heard coming from the other side of the door. Well, at least River's idea was working. Next to him Zoë raised her shotgun.

"Mal-" Jayne started again.

"Not now," he cut him off. Wasn't like it was easy to think with Jayne pestering him on top of the infernal noise.

"But-"

Abruptly he turned around to face him. "Now, I know this ain't common practice for you, Jayne, so you may not recognize the signs," he ground out. "But I'm tryin' to _think_ here, so some quiet would be appreciated!"

Jayne shrugged. "Jus' thought you might be interested 'bout the other way."

"I ain't- what other way?"

"The other way outta here," Jayne explained, raising his eyebrows.

Mal turned to glare at River. "You, of course, knew this," he said. She just smiled. "I hate you so much."

"Yes, you do," River nodded solemnly, then she skipped over to Jayne's side and hugged his good arm, which was just as well, because she probably couldn't have reached around his torso with her skinny arms.

The baffled expression on Jayne's face almost put him back in a good disposition. Almost.

"That's very touching," he commented. "But remember the other side of that door? Lots of people, lots of weapons. _Bad_ tempers. Ring any bells?"

"This way," Jayne said, jerking his head to the right.

Mal promptly followed him, they were going in the opposite direction of the weapons and the bad tempers, and that was a good thing in his book. "How come you know your way around?" he asked, trying to see where he was going in the darkness. Then he frowned, something else occurring to him. "Come to think of it, how come you ain't dead?"

Jayne's answer was lost to the deafening roar of an explosion. And there went the door. Apparently Gerrick wasn't worried about cave-ins.

"You said the door was gonna hold!" Jayne exclaimed, presumably addressing River.

"Yes, Jayne," Mal replied, pushing against his back to get him to move forward. "But not against explosive."

Jayne sprang forward, but it was due more probably to the sound of shouts and running feet, than to Mal's tight tone. "But you said-" he started.

"Look, Jayne, I'm not really sure going out there to argue about the structural integrity of this cave would be appreciated by your former employees."

"They ain't really my for-"

"The point is," he growled, "shut up and go faster, Jayne!"

Zoë was bringing up their rears and Mal knew they had very little time to find a way out when he heard her shotgun. "How long till your supposed way out, Jayne?" he asked, or meant to as Jayne stopped suddenly in front of him and Mal ended his question with his face smashed up against his back.

His _solid_ back. He grimaced, taking a step back and massaging his sore nose.

"Should be here," Jayne muttered, feeling his way along the wall. After a moment he made a small sound and suddenly a portion of the wall opened, revealing a small interstice and a metal ladder. It had been practically invisible, especially in the darkness, and you probably had to know it was there to find it.

Which raised the question. "How did'ya know that was there?"

"Been here before," Jayne replied and went through the small opening. "The ladder goes to the surface, Gerrick don't know it's here."

"Shiny," Mal muttered, grabbing River's arm and directing her after Jayne. "Zoë!"

He waited until she got in too and closed the trap door after them. Together they hurried up the ladder, Mal fervently hoped that Jayne had been right and that Gerrick didn't know it was there. Or that he wasn't gonna find it at any rate. On the ladder they were sitting ducks, and it was a long way up to the surface, after all, and no guarantee there'd be nobody waiting for them up there.

Mal cursed under his breath, wishing he'd gone first. This gorram 'mission' had been a humped-up idea since the start. They shouldn't have come here, no matter if Jayne wasn't 'just a merc' anymore. They were all gonna die and the only consolation he could hope for was meeting Zoë in hell so he could say to her 'told you so'.

Then he remembered he didn't believe in god, nor heaven, nor hell, just gorram stupidity.

He had no idea how long they'd been climbing as the darkness had completely humped his perception of time and space. There was only the _clang, clang_ as their feet climbed up the rungs, and the sound was starting to grate on his nerves.

And then there was light.

And dust and small rocks falling down on his face, into his eyes.

"_Ta ma de_," he cursed, trying to blink everything away.

He wasn't adjusted to the light yet, so Zoë grabbed his forearm and helped him up and out of the tunnel.

He shook his head and squinted at the others. "Well, wasn't that…" he trailed off, as he had really no idea what that had been. Nothing even remotely familiar, though, that was for sure.

"Lucky, sir?" Zoë suggested.

"Well, yeah," he nodded, still slightly dazed. "That never happens."

"No, it don't," Jayne agreed.

"I for one am happy for the change," Zoë said, then she fished out her compass and pointed. "Mule's that way, Sir."

"And yet," Mal said, watching as Jayne started walking precisely in the opposite direction, "here I am, wondering what the hell are you doing, Jayne?" the words growing exponentially louder.

Jayne stopped and turned around, and in the sunlight he didn't look all right in the least. His face was cut and bruised, his arm cradled against his chest, swollen and painful looking.

"Loot's that way," he replied, as if that explained everything. Then he turned again and started walking with wide if a little shaky steps, counting them under his breath.

Mal turned to Zoë. "Loot?" he repeated. "Am I missing something?"

"If you are, sir, so am I."

"River?"

"The X marks the spot," she said with a grin. "A treasure hunt!" She gave a delighted chuckle then, and ran to Jayne's side, leaving Mal and Zoë to stand there, looking at them.

"You know," he said after a moment. "When you are a captain, you expect to be in command of something, and not the idiot that gets left standing with no clue of what's going on."

Zoë raised an eyebrow at him. "If you say so, sir."

"I do, Zoë," he nodded. "Sometimes I wish I could keelhaul somebody, just to show 'em who's boss." Well, he'd almost spaced Jayne once, but keelhauling had a whole different ring to it.

This time Zoë didn't reply, and together they made their way after Jayne and River. They found them a few minutes later, and they were a rather bizarre sight. A frail-looking girl and a big man twice her height, and probably four times her weight, staring intently at a patch of sand like a thirsty man would've stared at a cold beer. Or Jayne at whores.

"That's your X, I guess," Mal said, glancing at the ground. It looked like sand, though, because it was sand, like all the other gorram sand around them. Because they were standing in a gorram _desert_.

"You got a shovel?" Jayne suddenly asked, turning to him and he was _serious_.

"Of course, Jayne. I got one right here in my pocket," Mal said drily. "Just let me get it."

Jayne blinked stupidly at him.

He sighed. "Now, please, can everybody here gather back their brain or what passes for one so we can go back to _Serenity_?"

"There's about fifty-thousand credits buried under here," Jayne said, pointing down at their feet.

"Zoë, get me a shovel."

"Afraid I left it in my other pants, sir," was her reply.

He looked up at Jayne. "Why are there fifty-thousand credits buried under here?"

"'Cuz I buried 'em here," Jayne replied.

"Right," Mal cleared his voice and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Explain everything and make it fast."

"I used to work for Gerrick's brother, Lincoln," Jayne started.

"The one you killed, you mean?"

"No," Jayne shook his head. "This used to be Lincoln's HQ, lived here 'bout six months. That why I know my way around. Then we did a job, a job that got us lots of coin."

"The coin buried under here," Mal guessed.

Jayne nodded. "But then Cliff got greedy and Lincoln told me to kill him."

Mal blinked. "Wait, who's Cliff?"

"Lincoln's brother," Jayne replied, then he shrugged. "Gerrick's too, I reckon."

He frowned. "Hang on, how many brothers are we talking 'bout here?"

"Three. Gerrick, Lincoln and Cliff," Jayne replied, then he seemed to think about it. "Actually, I think they was four, but one left to become a preacher or sumthin'."

"Then we don't care 'bout him," Mal said. "So Lincoln sent you to kill Cliff. So what?"

"I killed him," Jayne said, matter-of-factly. "Then Gerrick proposed me to kill Lincoln and share the coin with him."

"Family reunions musta been a riot," Mal muttered.

"I was gettin' confused, so I killed Lincoln and ran with the money," Jayne continued. "But I was wounded and I had to hide it."

There was a long moment of silence, then Mal took a deep breath. "You know, Jayne," he said. "Everyday I get more and more amazed that I'm still keepin' you in my crew."

"Me too, Sir," Zoë added.

"Told ya, Mal," Jayne shrugged, but grimaced when the motion jarred his injured arm. "Ain't been no price high enough."

"Yet," Mal corrected him, and he'd have expected a smirk or at least a knowing glance, instead Jayne just gave him a long look he couldn't quite decipher, and then he went back to stare at his patch of sand. "Tell you what, Jayne," he said, patting his shoulder. "We flag the coordinates and we come back when it's dark with some shovels."

Jayne seemed to brighten up at that. "You'll see Mal," he said with a small smile. "That coin's gonna keep _Serenity_ flyin' for a long time." That said he turned and headed east towards the mule they'd hidden behind some rocks, leaving a slightly bewildered Mal to stare at his back.

"Did he just say he wanted to share or did I dream that part?"

"He did," Zoë replied.

Mal met her eyes briefly and then he went back to staring at Jayne, shaking his head. "I swear, sometimes he just…" he trailed off into silence, but Zoë seemed to get his meaning anyway.

 

 

*  
*  
*  
*

 

 

 

Mal thumped the hatch twice with his foot instead of knocking, and only when he heard the gruff 'come in' did he step down the ladder into Jayne's bunk.

His merc was sitting on his bed, wearing clean clothes, all of his wounds treated and his arm in a cast and hanging from a sling. Jayne was writing what seemed like a letter, his tongue peeking out from his mouth, his face screwed up in concentration, and from where Mal was standing it looked pretty awkward.

He hadn't looked up when Mal had come down the ladder, a sign that he didn't keep his guard up anymore when he was on _Serenity_. It felt very much like trust and it unsettled Mal.

"Hey, Cap'n," Jayne greeted him, raising his eyes, then he took in his appearance and he frowned.

Mal looked down at himself and brushed away some of the grey dust, but he gave up pretty soon. "We went on a trip," he said, walking up to Jayne's bed, and coming to stand with his knees almost touching the foot of the bed. "Me and Zoë."

Jayne sat up straighter. "You found it?" he asked, his eyes wide with wonder and excitement, very much like a child. A big child, with lots of pointy knives, and big guns, and grenades. Not that children wouldn't play with that stuff, given the chance.

"We found it," Mal nodded. "It's in the cargo bay right now."

Jayne grinned. "What's the ten percent of a hell of a lot?" he asked and then leered.

Mal didn't join in, though. "All of it," he said.

Jayne frowned. "What?"

"It's all yours, Jayne," he clarified. "And while you gained it in your typical dishonest, backstabbing way, we played no part in it except the retrieval. And that's just because I wanted to be off this gorram rock as soon as I could, and couldn't wait for you to wake up from your sedated beauty sleep."

"All of…" Jayne muttered, still stuck on that part of the conversation.

Mal nodded. "Reckon you can buy a whole whorehouse next time we're dirt-side."

"But…"

"Now Jayne, don't tell me you _don't want_ all that money," he snorted. "After all, weren't you the one to tell me you had to 'run some errands' after we were done with Gerrick?" Jayne looked away, the fingers of his left hand scratching nervously at his cast. "That was your errand, wasn't it?" he continued. "You'd planned to go and get your 'treasure', but you hadn't planned Gerrick."

"Didn't know he was gonna be the buyer," Jayne said, his eyes lowered. "You don't tell me that stuff."

"And there's a good reason why, Jayne."

"So we get all shot at?" Jayne asked, pointedly, finally meeting his eyes.

Touché. Mal cleared his voice. "Well, we ain't discussing that anyway."

"What you angry at me for, then?" Jayne growled, his eyes sparkling with anger. "Because I was gonna keep the coin for myself, Mal? That what I'm supposed to do, right? Well, now you're givin' 'em to me, where's the difference?"

The difference was that he hadn't told Mal about his plans, the difference was that there were a lot of things he didn't know about his crew, but that he _needed_ to know in order to be a good captain, in order to keep them safe. This time nothing had gone horribly wrong, Jayne's arm was gonna heal, but what about next time?

"Mal?" Jayne asked softly.

Mal didn't answer, though. He didn't know how without passing as a possessive _hun dan_. Gorram it, who the hell did he think he could fool? He was a possessive _hun dan_.

"He kept you alive because of the coin you stole," he said, after a moment. "Gerrick, I mean."

Jayne looked vaguely surprised by the change of subject, but he nodded after a moment. Without saying anything else, Mal turned and made to leave, but then Jayne spoke quietly and his words froze him in his steps.

"Was gonna make it a surprise," Jayne admitted.

"What?"

"The coin," he explained. "Was gonna buy Kaylee some of 'em strawberries. Cigars for you and Zoë. For Inara some of the stuff she lights up that smells funny."

"Incense," Mal said, automatically.

"Yeah, that one," Jayne nodded. "Still hadn't figured out for the Doc and his _kuang ren_ sister." He trailed off, his eyes fixed on the bulkhead in front of him, from his position near the ladder Mal studied his profile. "Was gonna buy some real food."

"Why?"

"What?" Jayne exclaimed angrily, turning to look at him. "Ya think that jus' 'cause I'm the dumb merc I can't like you people?"

"No," Mal shook his head. "Just wanted to hear that."

Jayne visibly calmed down at that and he remained silent, even though Mal felt there was something else there. He took the few steps that separated him from the bed and sat down next to him. Jayne shot him a brief glance before going back to observing his feet.

"'S like when my pa died," Jayne continued after a moment. "Like you're now. You and Zoë, 'specially. Lil' Kaylee and the Doc ain't always like that, 'cause they're ruttin' every chance they get, but I seen her cryin' alone, sometimes." Mal nodded because he had, too. "And the girl ain't crazy like before, but she reads the Shepherd's Bible, and she ain't moved Wash's dinos. And Inara…"

Inara was looking at the sky trying to find the words to say goodbye, he could see that on her face. He didn't want her to leave them, but there were days she wanted to, and she had to. Mal couldn't ask her to stay now, like he couldn't ask anybody else on his crew. It was too dangerous; after Miranda, revolts were brewing everywhere, but mostly in the outer planets. The Alliance was barely keeping everything together, and Mal would've thought he'd greet this day as a fortuitous one, but he was too tired to fight another war, and he didn't feel like he had any rights any more. He was just a common criminal, now.

"I ain't sayin' we should forget the dead," Jayne continued. "I'm just sayin'- I'm just sayin' that they ain't here so that we could be, and that bein' like this ain't right to their memory."

Mal blinked and turned to stare at Jayne with something very close to wonder on his face. Jayne must have felt it because he looked up at him with a frown. "What?" he asked, self-consciously.

"You know Jayne," he said, shaking his head. "Sometimes you really amaze me."

"Why? Did I say something dumb?"

"No, you didn't," Mal replied. "That's what amazes me. You may not be the brightest star in the night sky, Jayne Cobb, but there're times when you're the wisest of men." Jayne was still staring at him. "That was a compliment, I ain't making fun of you."

He slapped his knees, raising a small cloud of dust and stood up. "The coin's still yours, Jayne, you can do whatever you want with it."

He was halfway up the ladder when he stopped. "Oh, almost forgot," he exclaimed, jumping down again. He reached behind his back to get Jayne's gun from his belt and he threw it at Jayne who caught it with his left hand. "Got Glenda for you."

Jayne looked down at his gun as if it was alien to him, then he blinked up at Mal. "You know the names of my guns?" he asked, bewildered. If it had been anybody else, that question would have been absolutely ridiculous.

Actually, thinking about it, it was still pretty ridiculous.

"Two weeks ago," Mal said, and it was all the words he needed.

Jayne's head shot up and he widened his eyes at him. "You said…" he started.

"I know what I said," Mal cut him off. "And it still stays. Nothing changes the fact that we had drunk our bodyweight in alcohol."

"We was pretty drunk," Jayne agreed.

"That we was," Mal nodded. "And you introduced me to your knives and your guns."

Jayne laughed out loud and Mal glared at him. "Anyway, seems I remember more than I thought."

Jayne nodded slowly, but he said nothing. Mal fidgeted when the silence started to stretch out.

"Goodnight," Jayne said at last, but it sounded unsure like a question.

"Night."

The sound of Mal's boots on the metal rungs as he climbed the stairs out of Jayne's room echoed around them.


End file.
